ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - Baghdad Today, a media outlet based in the Iraqi capital, strongly condemned on Friday "the unjustified attack" on one of its reporters by Adnan Dirjal, head of the Iraqi Football Association, following the national team's loss to South Korea in a World Cup qualifier.

A video has circulated widely on Iraqi social media, showing Dirjal prohibiting journalists from filming and assaulting a reporter from the Baghdad Today news outlet.

Baghdad Today reports that Dirjal violently took the microphone from the reporter’s hand, threw it to the ground, and then seized his phone, shouting at the reporter as he was escorted away.

"There was no justification for this behavior, and the reporter did not utter anything that warranted the attack,” Baghdad Today said in a statement. "Baghdad Today affirms that this behavior represents a blatant assault on the freedom of journalism and a violation of the dignity of journalists who work under difficult conditions to cover sporting events with professionalism and independence."

The news outlet called on the relevant authorities in Baghdad, as well as the Iraqi Journalists Syndicate, to "take a clear stance against this unacceptable behavior and hold those responsible accountable, to preserve the prestige of journalism, and guarantee the rights of journalists to practice their profession without threat or intimidation."

"Baghdad Today also reserves its legal right to prosecute any party that assaults its staff and affirms its commitment to continuing to fulfill its media mission, without being intimidated by such individual actions,” the media outlet explained.

The Iraqi national football team lost to South Korea 2-0 on Thursday evening in the ninth gameweek of Group B of the 2026 FIFA World Cup Asian qualifiers. This defeat officially dashed Iraq’s hopes of direct qualification to the 2026 World Cup from the third round, and it will now need to undergo another round of qualifiers in October.

In its 2024 report, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) ranked Iraq 169th worldwide in terms of press freedom, marking a two-rank drop from last year’s 167th ranking.

Since 2003, 475 journalists and media workers have been killed in Iraq, with perpetrators held accountable in only two or three cases, according to the Iraqi Observatory for Human Rights (IOHR).